Artist Statement / About Current Projects [continued]:
...and thereby challenge the way the visual has been privileged over other sensory stimuli. Strong biases toward the visual are codetermined by the contemporary cultural and political landscape, and are thus exhibited not just by scientists but by cultural producers working with ideas about "the final frontier." As speculative terrain, outer space is both real and imaginary, where metaphor and allegory have as many claims to truth as does science. I have therefore been interested in making the popular enthusiasm about the subject of outer space politically active through subtle, multi-sensory, thought/brain experiments and phenomenological installations.
My most recent works allow participants to time travel, to empathize, to experience vertigo, claustrophobia, and undergo catharsis, and to desire alternate realities. I aim to develop multiple strategies for holistic problem solving that can transfer as knowledge to the audience. Like bumping a near-Earth object onto a different course to prevent calamity, I am hypothesizing that phenomenological and olfactory triggers of memories and associations at the right moments can cause slight but dramatic social and personal shifts over the course of a lifetime.
My work aims to be both visually engaging and subtly affecting. I use the dual strategy to attract from a distance and then to inspire contemplation. I believe our longevity as a species and our physical realities as multivalent, empathic, and emotional creatures are at risk in our media-saturated environments, so the development and maintenance of sensory capacities beyond the visual is an imperative.